Upset, confused, nearly depressed, help?

01-20-2011, 10:17 PM

After speaking with my regular Dr, I have an appointment tomorrow with a PA that specializes in spine care at my regular clinic. Hoping for an injection!!! Does that also help if it were to be a pinched nerve?

01-21-2011, 08:43 AM

While my latest MRI and CAT scans did show some problems on my discs, it wasn't until I had a discogram done that they found where most of my current pain is coming from. The only disc I had that looked good on the MRI was the one that is causing most of my pain...when the doctor injected the dye for the discogram, it just leaked out.
You might want to discuss a similar test for your back...they can't always see what wrong. Best of luck...Bill

01-21-2011, 11:25 AM

A brief synapses, I fell down a flight of stairs in Noveraber, very mild rear end car accident in Jan '08, and then seemed to start hurting after shovelling snow, using an ice pick in February. When I fell down the stairs, the lower left side of my back was black and blue, and the shoulder areas were red. I didn't go to the Dr when it happened, and it seemed to get better within a couple of weeks. Has gotten increasingly worse, and hurts daily, mostly all of the time. Pain started off being worse in the lower back, but has spread to the area just under the sholder blades. Seems worse on my left side. My left arm is often nurab, and nearly always my left hand "feels" cold and fingers tingling. The pain is now more prevalent in the sholder blades, however low back still hurts daily.

I finally had my MRI yesterday. My back has been hurting nearly non-stop for 6-8 weeks. I had been on percoset, flexyral, then moved to tramadol, then to propoxyphene. Only the percoset did anything for the pain, and only if I took it more often than prescribed. (I didn't exceed the nuraber of pills daily, just not spaced out as much) My physical medicine Dr. said the MRI was normal. I almost went into tears. I had been looking so forward to finally finding out what was wrong with my back. He suggested I just keep going to PT. I told him that the propoxyphene didn't do anything for the pain, and that I didn't like taking it because of what I have read about it. He said because the MRI came out normal, he wouldn't prescribe anything else. I truly felt like he thought I'm making this up just to get pain medicine. Here's what it says on the paper regarding my MRI:
MRI -L Spine; W/O Contrast
MRI of the lurabar spine
Sagittal T1,T2
Long TR/TE fast spin axials from L3-4 through L5-S1
Findings:
Conus normal and terminates at low T12. No marrow signal alterations. Position/alignment good. All of the discs are of normal height, signal intensity, and contour. There is mild lower lurabar facet hypertrophy. No herniations, masses, or findings that suggest internal disc derangements.
Impression: Normal.

Hope that may mean something to someone out here. The Dr. seemed to think I would be happy with the results. I'm happy that it's not as bad is others on here, but I had been so thrilled to finally find out what was wrong and figure out how to make it better. Anyone know what this may be, or have any advice? Please...

01-22-2011, 04:12 AM

Hi! I have arthritis in my facet joints in my lower back. I was in so much pain a few years ago! My MRI showed the "facet" problems, and I had facet injections. They really helped a lot! The facet joints are the joints on the side of your spine that support your discs. They can become inflammed and worn down just like any other joint in your body. Sometimes surgeons will ignore this problem, but a pain management doctor or physiatrist (physical medicine doc) can inject them. I also ended up getting the facet pain nerves burned, which gives longer lasting relief. You might ask about these procedures. Take care, Kera4

01-22-2011, 11:30 AM

Gosh, that is the hardest thing when MRI's are normal. There are a few people on the board that it took a lonnnnnnng time to the road of diagnosis. If you are not satisifed with your doctors response to your pain, I say time to move on and see someone else for another opinion.

Also, please know that sometimes a really bad sprain can take awhile to recover from.

Good luck.

01-22-2011, 12:08 PM

The Dr never mentioned the "facet hypertrophy". He only met with me for about 3 minutes. I researched on line, and the symptoms seem to match mine very closely. It states that it can be treated with injections. This seems like a much better option to me than continued pain medicine that doesn't do anything. Anyone heard of facet hypertrophy and know if the injections can work for this? I just spoke with the nurse of my regular Dr who is checking into this form me.

01-23-2011, 03:27 AM

Thanks for the advice. Dr. I saw yesterday was much better. He seemed to think the MRI was more substantial based on the report. (hasn't seen the film yet) He gave me different meRAB, and stretching routine on my inversion table. If it isn't better next week, he'll get me the injections, and probably take an MRI of my upper back and neck. He said that the nurab arm and hand wouldn't be related to my lower back. Makes a big difference when the Dr seems to care!

01-23-2011, 05:18 AM

DietDrPepper, I normal MRI- wow what's that?!?!
I wish, I had one

**AnnD** · 01-23-2011, 02:32 PM

It sounRAB like pinched nerves and gosh that can be the cause of some serious pain. Pinched nerves wouldn't show up on an MRI so perhaps you need to seek out a clinic that deals in the whole spine and have other testing done to see if you have had some nerve damage. That makes more sense than telling you there is nothing wrong when obviously there is.

01-24-2011, 04:55 AM

That is great news. I pray that things continue to look up for you.

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